Monthly Archives: March 2007

EDUCATION

MILITANT ISLAM MONITOR CALLS KALIL GIBRAN A “JIHAD SCHOOL”: COME ON NOW

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The Militant Islam Monitor asserts that the Kalil Gibran Internation Academy, that may go into the school building that houses PS 282 on Sixth Avenue at Lincoln Place  in Park Slope, will be a magnet for Jihadi militantism.

That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

The MIM believes (erroniously) that the school would serve as an INSTITUTION OF INDOCTRINATION with its staff and curriculum "mirroring the same
ideology as the 9/11 hijackers.:

To me, this sounds like such a load of racist crap. Here’s an excerpt from a post on MIM’s website. They want to block the creation of the Kalil Gibran Internation Academy: 

Slated to be the school’s principal, Dhabah [aka "Debbie"]
Almontaser was presented an award by the Council on American Islamic
Relations [CAIR, the Saudi funded front group for Hamas and a
co-defendant in a 9/11 terrorism lawsuit] and more importantly, the
curriculum of her school has been designed by the radical American Arab
Anti Discrimination Committee [ADC].

The ADC’s funder [and recipient of the ADC’s "Global
Achievement Award"] Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s 10 million dollar
donation to the 9/11 victims charity was rejected by then NY Mayor
Giuliani because of Talal’s claim that American policy towards Israel
was the reason for the terrorist outrage. Talal has also raised money
to reward the family’s of suicide bombers.

The ADC is also in the forefront of filing discrimination
lawsuits and legal challenges aimed at obstructing the FBI, JTTF and
Homeland Security from investigating Arab and Muslims who pose
potential terrorism threats. source http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/671

Six years after the attacks and still no memorial at Ground
Zero, instead 2007 will see the opening of the taxpayer funded Brooklyn
based madrassah aka "The Khalil Gibran International Academy for Arabic
and Islamic Culture."


EDUCATION

PARENTS OPPOSE KALIL GIBRAN BECAUSE OF OVERCROWDING

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Let’s be clear.

–Some parents at PS 282 oppose a new middle and high school going into their elementary school building on Sixth Avenue and Lincoln Place in Park Slope on grounds that it will overcrowd the school.  The proposed school is called the Kalil Gibran International Academy. The parents would oppose the inclusion of any proposed middle or high school in their building.

—The Militant Islam Monitor opposes the Kalil Gibran International Academy on the crazy ground that it has a Jihadi agenda. They will oppose this school wherever it goes.

These are separate arguments. The parents will continue to oppose the new school going in. The MIM will also continue to oppose the school — but for very different reasons.

Including links to the MIM in a letter about a parent’s opposition to the school really muddies the waters.

Don’t you think?

EDUCATION

NEW MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL MAY GO INTO PS 282 IN PARK SLOPE

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What’s all this I hear about a new middle school and high school going into the building that houses PS 282, a local elementary school on Sixth Avenue and Lincoln Place?

Two parents  at PS 282 wrote a letter to Chancellor Klein and sent it to me. I don’t know the whole story but I got a very weird feeling from the email I was sent.

The Kalil Gibran International Academy will be a school for arabic middle and high schoolers (100 pupils). Debbie Alontaser, who was listed on the Park Slope 100, is slated to be principal. Here’s a description of the school in today’s New York Sun:

A new public secondary school that is to include Middle Eastern
studies in its curriculum will focus on culture, not the region’s
political conflicts, Department of Education officials said yesterday.
"The school will not be a vehicle for political ideology," a Department
of Education spokesman, David Cantor, said of the Khalil Gibran
International Academy, due to open this September in Brooklyn.

As for the sorts of topics the school will cover, the CEO of the
Office of New Schools, Garth Harries, gave as an example a math lesson
plan that would mention that an Arabic mathematician invented the
concept of zero. "It’s going to follow Department of Education
regulations," the director of the Arab-American Family Support Center,
Lena Alhusseini, who helped design the school, said. "It’s going to be
exactly like all the schools in the city, the same curriculum."

I am alarmed that at the bottom of this parent’s email to Cancellor Klein, the authors included links to the Militant Islam Monitor, which is vehemently opposing the creation of this school on the crazy grounds that it has a Jihadi agenda.

While I have heard that the PTA opposes a new school being "stuffed into" their long-standing elementary school, including links like Miltant Islam Monitor is incendiary and so off the topic — it really makes me wonder.  What is the issue here, really? Is this racism or just a parent’s concerns about the future of their school. Here’s is the the email two parents sent to Chancellor Klein. 

Dear Chancellor Klein,

This evening we were given, along with almost the entire PS282  
community, some alarming news.  What was most alarming to us however  
was not the intention that you and New Visions have to open the  
Khalil Gibran International Academy within our walls, it's the  
arrogance with which it was done.  This was the first communication  
to anyone, except our principal who held back the news until the math  
tests were over, and it was presented to us as if we have no choice.   
When we asked Robert Hughes, president of New Visions, if he had  
looked at the population of the school that he is about to invade  
(yes, the parents feel it is an invasion) he told us that he hadn't  
but that he had looked at the building's capacity. Both the breakdown  
of the school's population and the building's capacity are on the  
same report easily accessible on the DOE website!

Please know that the parents are mobilizing and organizing a protest  
that will not end until this plan has been rethought.  We will  
contact every news outlet in the city and in the country.

Our son is in the third grade LEAD program, he and his classmates  
have the highest test scores of the school, he is one of few non- 
african americans in his class.  He is fluently bilingual and bi- 
cultural and we want him to keep an open mind, and it is for this  
that we chose PS282 over other neighborhood schools, public and  
private.  We will not keep him in the school if he loses one piece of  
the curriculum that he is presently offered or the space for that to  
take place in, nor will we keep him in an educational environment  
that "is an abdication of the basic principle behind public education  
to set up separate schools to teach uncritically one history and one  
culture."

Although the news has been public only for a short time, please read  
below what a quick google search comes up with about your new  
school.  Why do you want to put this kind of pressure on a small,  
neighborhood school in the midst of growing with such great potential?


Sincerely,

Jennifer Bacon Fossati and Filippo Fossati
parents of Paolo Fossati, class 3-209, PS282
Civics and Urban Life

PASTOR MEETER ON THE MORAL ISSUES SURROUNDING THE ATLANTIC YARDS

Read Pastor Meeter’s fascinating thoughts on the moral issues surrounding the Atlantic Yards controversy. Meeter, the pastor of the Old First Dutch Reformed Church, evokes the Tower of Babel, the Garden of Eden, and Naboth’s Vineyard. Read more at Pastor Meeter’s blog, yes he’s a member of Park Slope’s blogging clergy (see Andy Bachman,too).

The moral issue is what kind of country do we want? What kind of
concentrations of power? What protections of private property? Who
determines the public good, especially when the differences in scale
are so great, and the government is drawn to the interests of the
economically powerful? In the Torah, the public good is determined by
the interests of the small piece of private property.

The second Biblical image is the Tower of Babel. It’s in Genesis 11. The Torah is pretty clear on this. God was against it.

Not
because God is against big buildings and skyscrapers as such, but
because of the concentration of power which the Tower represents. Such
concentrations always require hierarchies, and bosses, and dictators,
and centralizations, and the sublimation of the individual to the
vision of the leadership.

The second reason that God was against
the Tower is because it represents the refusal to accept our limits. We
don’t know when to stop. We don’t know how to say No, Enough.

It’s not wholly different from the original sin of Adam in the Garden. The chance to not
eat the fruit is what made Adam a human being, and the opportunity to
say no to the fruit is what gave him wisdom. He had to use his
judgment. He had to accept his limits.

STUFF AND THINGS

LECTURE ON MARGARET SANGER AT THE OLD STONE HOUSE

The Old Stone House presents its  annual Herb Yellin
Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, March 21 at 7 pm. 

NYU professor Esther Katz, the director of the Margaret Sanger Papers
Project will speak. Sanger – reformer, activist and crusader for women’s rights – was a
fascinating and complex personality whose life exemplifies the exceptional
circumstances and sacrifices still confronted by women today. Tickers are $5 and include
refreshments. Books will be
available. 

For more
information, please contact OSH.
Kim
Maier
718-768-3195
New York 1

SUNSET RESIDENTS BLOCK HIGH-RISE

This from New York 1:

Residents rejoiced Sunday after blocking the construction of a
high-rise apartment building in their low-rise neighborhood in the
Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.

After pressure from the Sunset Park Alliance of Neighbors, a
proposed 12-story building that was to go up on a former parking lot on
42nd Street will instead be trimmed down to five and half stories.

The group calls it the first of many victories.

"We created an organization, Sunset Park Alliance of Neighbors, to
mobilize this effort and push our elected officials to make that
change, and it worked,” said Ivette Cabrea.

"I think that when the community come united and unified against a
project with the same objectives they know they can accomplish a lot,”
said Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz.

The group says it plans to keep fighting what it calls "out of context development" in Sunset Park.

Postcard from the Slope

SEVENTH GRADER TRYING TO FIX B67 BUS PROBLEMS

Remember that story in OTBKB about Daniel Epelbaum, a seventh grader at the Brooklyn Friends School, who wrote a letter to Borough President Marty Markowitz about the B67 bus and how it doesn’t run often enough.

Well, that’s a problem many Park Slopers can relate to. That bus, that bus. It never comes. It’s always crowded, etc.

On that day at Sweet Melissa, Daniel Epelbaum had just gotten a response from Marty. He was overjoyed. Here’s a very detailed response from the Borough President to Epelbaum,

Props to Daniel Epelbaum. Because of his letter and his interest, New York City Transit may make some much needed improvements to that bus line which serves Park Slope and downtown Brooklyn.

You can fight City Hall. Go Daniel!

Mr.
Daniel Epelbaum

Seventh Grade Student

Brooklyn Friends School
375 Pearl Street
Brooklyn, NY
11215

Dear Mr. Epelbaum:

 

I have received a response to the letter I sent on January
29, 2007 to Transit President Lawrence Reuter on your behalf. You may have read
that Mr. Lawrence Reuter is no longer President of New York City Transit, having dedicated
many years of his life to improving our Transit system. However, I have received
a response from Acting President Millard Seay, who advises me that Transit is
considering your concerns.

 

In his response, which I have enclosed for your
information, Mr. Seay addresses a number of issues in this
matter:

 

  • Your
      letter was forwarded to Transit’s Division of Operations Planning for their
      consideration and response.
  • The
      Department of Buses was directed to closely monitor the southbound B67 service
      leaving Downtown Brooklyn during the evening peak travel period and take appropriate
    action to ensure that the service is operating closely to
    schedule.
  • He
      encourages you to forward any pertinent information to Bus Customer Relations
      if you experience any inordinate delay on your homeward bound
      trip.

 

I believe that it is important for public spirited citizens
such as yourself to voice any legitimate concern about the public service to
which we are entitled. In a democracy,

participation of the public in reporting the performance of
public services is the best guarantee that our concerns are addressed and
remedied.

 

By calling attention to the service deficiencies you
observed, you have played a valuable role for those of us who are concerned
about maintaining the quality of life and the balanced growth of Downtown
Brooklyn.  

 

Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Marty Markowitz

Postcard from the Slope

THIS SUMMER: LIT MAG BOOT CAMP FOR TEENS

Looking for something interesting for your teenager to do this summer in Brooklyn, check this out:

LIT MAG BOOT CAMP

For High School Students
5 Wednesday sessions: July 11, 18, 25, August 1, 8 (2007)
10am-1pm
Taught by 826NYC
Write, edit, and publish an original magazine! Ready to take complete control of how and
when your writing is published? This summer, 826NYC will work with a select group of
writers on a collection of articles, short stories, and essays destined for publication.
Apply today for your chance to:

– Join a community of talented writers.

– Meet professional journalists, writers, and editors who will speak with you about the writing process

-Workshop your writing with an instructor and your peers. Have private access to the
writing center at 826NYC.¨

– Learn all of the tools you need to design and produce a professional publication.

– Create an original publication with your peers, which 826NYC, will publish at the end of the summer.

Applications for this program are due no later than April 30, 2007.
 
Visit: http://www.826nyc.org/programming/workshops/ for application materials and more information.
Other Bloggers

SEEING GREEN FORGOT TO UPDATE HIS COMPUTER TO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

I had tried.

Believe me, I had tried. I had written Post-It notes to myself. I had
mentioned it several times to my wife and begged her to remind me
(isn’t that what wives are for?) I told my 9-year old who has the
memory of a steel trap and can remember the name of the ship that
7-of-9 (my favorite character) from Star Trek Voyager was abandoned in,
a show that he saw, oh perhaps 2-1/2 years ago. I even threatened him
with severe consequences (ok, cancellation of one Star Trek episode) if
he didn’t remind me. I sent an email to myself (which, under the
circumstances, could’ve been futile.)

To no avail.

I woke up in a cold sweat this morning.  I had forgotten! I
dreaded the trek up the fifteen steps to my office. What would I find
there? Could I even open the door? The room was dark, I having
remembered to close the darkening drapes the night before. Ominous and
still. I opened the door slowly and glanced fearfully inside, prepared
for the worst. What would I be faced with on my desk? A smoking hulk? A
dead lump of plastic and silicon? A sullen monster prepared to bite the
hand that had lovingly keystroked it all these years? All my files
destroyed, my memories erased, my pictures fragmented?

READ WHAT HAPPENED AT SEEING GREEN!

Postcard from the Slope

FREE OPTION AND ANCILLARY-RIGHTS GIVE-AWAY FOR JONATHAN LETHEM’S NEW BOOK

Loveme307
That Jonathan Lethem, he’s such an interesting guy. He’s giving away the movie rights to his book:

On May 15th I’ll give away a free option on the film rights to my novel You Don’t Love Me Yet to a selected filmmaker. In return for the free option, I’ll ask two things:
            

 
I’d
like the filmmaker to pay (something) for the purchase of the rights if
they actually make a film: two percent of the budget, paid when the
completed film gets a distribution deal. (I’ll wait until distribution
to get paid so a filmmaker without many funds can work without having
to spend their own money paying me).

If you’re a filmmaker who feels that You Don’t Love Me Yet might
make a good film and also likes the unusual terms of this proposal, I’d
like to hear from you, at the address below. Tell me what kind of work
you’ve done before, and how you’d expect to handle this project both
creatively and financially.

Read why at Jonathan Lethem dot com.

            

Civics and Urban Life

ONE WAY NO WAY PETITION AND MEETING

Park Slope Neighbors, has launched a petition drive to oppose the plan to make Seventh Avenue
and Sixth Avenue one-way streets.

"One-way avenues are
unfriendly to neighborhood life" and that "changes like these should
only be considered as part of a comprehensive, multi-modal, area-wide
transportation plan." The full petition can be viewed online and signed here. Volunteers have also been out in Park Slope gathering signatures."

BIG MEETING AT METHODIST HOSPITAL AUDITORIUM ON MARCH 15 at 7:30 p.m.:

Park Slope Civic Council meeting on proposed NYC Dept. of Transportation changes to Park Slope traffic patterns on 6th and 7th Avenues. Check out the Council’s website www.parkslopeciviccouncil.org for details and links.  All are welcome. New York Methodist Hospital Auditorium, 506 Sixth Street between 7th Avenue and 8th Avenues.


 

Postcard from the Slope

GOWANUS LOUNGE SAD THAT NURSERY IS MOVING TO RED HOOK

Gowanus Lounge and Brooklyn Record report that the Gowanus Nursery, a wonderful spot for plants and flowers for backyard and container gardening, is moving to Red Hook. GL is glad for them but sad that they’ve left his beloved nabe behind.

We just especially loved their former location. Something about a
nursery in Gowanus spoke to the human drive to overcome any
circumstance that comes your way.) Regardless, the nursery, which lost
its home because of future real estate development in the hood, will
reemerge on March 31 at 45 Summit Street,
which is between Columbia and Van Brunt Streets near the entrance to
the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. It’s on the street whose direction was
changed when some of the traffic patterns were changed because of the
endless construction on Columbia Street.

Civics and Urban Life

NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK: CONEY ISLAND REPORTER

Joining Gowanus Lounge and Kinetic Carnival in their coverage of Coney Island, there’s a new blog on block called, Coney Island Reporter, "One lonely grad
student has set out to learn everything there is to know about this
bizzare stretch of beach."

About the blogger: Brian
Childs is a fiction writer nd freelance reporter. Currently, he is pursuing a
masters degree in magazine journalism at New York University. He is
author of The Evening Rolled on like a Tank Being Driven by a Zombie:
Short Stories by Brian Childs and The Coney Island Reporter, a blog and
research resource on Coney Island.

Civics and Urban Life

BROKLYN MATTERS AT ETHICAL CULTURE 8 p.m.

  Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture
 

    53 Prospect Park West
    Brooklyn, New York
 

   
 
   

BROOKLYN MATTERS: Film Screening on March 14th at 8 p.m.

No single event will have a more drastic and more long-lasting impact
on Brooklyn than the proposed development of Atlantic Yards by Forest
City Ratner. This uncommon proposal, however, is mostly misunderstood.
Brooklyn Matters by Isabel Hill is an insightful documentary which reveals the fuller
truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few
powerful men are circumventing community participation and skirting
legal protections to try to get the deal done.

Postcard from the Slope

HANDYMAN’S TRIAL GOES TO JURY

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As I write this, a jury deliberates in the trial of a local, well-liked handyman who was accused by a 13-year-old Park Slope girl of sexual molestation.

The man vehemently denies all the charges.

Readers of OTBKB will remember what happened a year ago when the girl’s mother posted a note about this situation on the mirror in the vestibule of my apartment building (and on many of the street’s lamp posts).

I posted about the note (excluding names) and my report drew a Daily News reporter to Third Street. Then the television news vultures came. For me, it was a real wake-up call. THE EDITORS OF ALL THE NY DAILIES READ OTBKB!! BE CAREFUL.

I am eager to learn the fate of this man. I see nothing about it in the news. Here’s a post I wrote about a year ago:

It was just a note on the mirror of my building’s vestibule. Now it seems like a whole lot more.

People’s lives.

The man. The girl. The mother. They’re all locked in
a  twisted tango. Who is telling the truth? What is the real story here?

Reputation. Judgement. Craziness. I am hearing many things. Many.
That the man is reputable. That the accusations are groundless. That he
doesn’t deserve to have his life ruined this way.

It was just a note on the mirror. But so much more. Ambiguity. A
mother’s attempt to warn and protect or a mother’s attempt to indict
and ruin a man publically? What could be her motive? What could be his? And who is telling the truth?

And then there’s my small role in all of this. Did I fan the flames
by putting it on OTBKB. I just saw the
note and wanted to share what I was feeling about that note: the fear,
the uncertaintly, the sense that these things are complicated.
Wondering if it  true, or is it slander.

I may know Third Street but I didn’t know this man at all. Now I am
hearing about him from neighbors and friends who care about him, trust
him, and strongly believe that these accusations are simply not true.

There were moments this weekend when I wondered whether I was the
reason that note was left there. That the mother knew, somehow, that I
would blog about it, that I would spread the word and be complicit in
what might be a lie.

I don’t know the truth—only three people know, including the girl’s mother. How could I possibly know?

A jury will sit through a trial – and hear the evidence –
and decide whether there is enough proof. I sat on a jury in a sexual molestation trial in June/July of 2005 and I know what that’s like. You go in with a
whole bunch of preconceptions and the trial can really turn you around.
It’s all very complicated. And finally when the jury is sequestered and
it’s time to reach a verdict, there must be proof beyond a reasonable
doubt.

For someone who purports to know Third Street, I guess I don’t know
Third Street as well as I thought. We know what we know and who we know
— beyond that we don’t know a thing. If I fanned the flames in this
incident – I take full responsibility.

There must be an object lesson in all this about journalistic
ethics and blogging. About Brooklyn blocks and what you do and don’t
know. About sexual harassment and the muddy  realm of statutory rape,
endangering the welfare of a child. About lies, about truth. There must
be an object lesson in this.

So I wait to hear what the jury decides. I’ve been following Nancie Katz’s reporting on the trial in the Daily News (last year’s reporter was named Celeste Katz, what’s the story here?).

I know too much about these kinds of cases to even know what to think. It’s all very complex. And so much defends on the quality of the legal representation. Does the handyman have a good enough lawyer? Does the girl have a tough public prosecutor? I heard that he’s facing felony charges and I wondered why. A good lawyer probably could have brought the charges down to a misdemeanor.

I await a verdict, which will determine the next few years in the life of this man.

Still, I know we will not learn the truth from this trial. What comes out of the trial will have more to do with the lawyers and the jury than anything else.

The fact that his lawyer put him on the stand says to me that his lawyer has great faith in the veracity of his story and his ability to come across well (though the man must speak through a translator). There is no necessity to put the defendant on the stand.

More than that, I cannot say.

Postcard from the Slope

6-DAY READING OF NAMES OF IRAQ DEAD PLANNED

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This from NY1:

Anti-war activists began a six day reading of the names of those who have died in the war in Iraq Sunday.

The Granny Peace Brigade and other groups have pledged to be
outside the Army recruiting center in Times Square from dawn until dusk
every day through March 16th.

They say they will recite the names of journalists, service members
and Iraqi civilians who have died since the war began in 2003.

"I think its important for people to remember that there are
thousands and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people that
have died, not only Iraqis, our soldiers. Now it’s Afghanistan,” said
Elaine Brower, mother of an Iraq war veteran. “I want people out in
Times Square and everywhere in the world to realize there are people
dying as we stand here."

Iraqi war veterans, Broadway actors, authors and others are expected to attend the reading throughout the week.

Postcard from the Slope

140 YEARS FOR PARK SLOPE CHURCH

            
            
            
         
This from New York 1: about the red brick church on Sixth Avenue near Lincoln Place.

A Brooklyn church celebrated 140 years in its neighborhood with a rededication ceremony Saturday.

The Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Park Slope was founded in 1867. Dozens attended services to mark the milestone.

"This church has persevered, continues to provide and its mission
of service to families of the community, it’s outreach to young people
in particular,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. "And
it’s imparting to each and every generation the internal teachings of
church, and that’s a good thing for all of us from every faith."

Church leaders say recent renovations have improved much of the historic building.

Postcard from the Slope

PS 321 WINTER CARNIVAL ON SATURDAY

From 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at PS 321 on Seventh Avenue near Second Street, this may be the best winter carnival yet because the weather promises to be warm and they’re having horse and pony rides in the backyard!!!

Not only that: The rummage sale can’t be beat. What a bunch of gently used children’s clothing.

Great books for adults and kids.

A really fun craft area where your children can while away hours exercising their creativity.

The food will be awesome. See you at lunch at the Carnival.

Civics and Urban Life

FIRE SAFETY TIPS FROM FDNY

This from the FDNY website.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta joined other fire officials at Engine 68 in the Bronx on March 9 to announce the Department will be distributing more than 100,000 free batteries for smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors throughout the City.

It is an effort to urge New Yorkers to change the batteries in their smoke alarms when they change their clocks this Sunday, March 11.

“In the wake of Wednesday night’s tragic fatal fire, the message couldn’t be clearer – change and test the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are required by New York law in all residences. They should be placed outside each bedroom or sleeping area and on every floor of the home – and they should be tested once a week.

Statistics from the National Fire Protection Association show that 70 percent of all fatal fires occur in homes without working smoke alarms.

“Our aim is to reduce fire fatalities in the city by ensuring that as many people as possible hear our message that smoke detectors save lives,” said Commissioner Scoppetta. “Most fires are preventable, and so are fatalities from fire when you have smoke detectors.”

Nine-volt batteries will be given out by members of the Department’s Fire Safety Education Unit and the FDNY Foundation, a non-profit group that supports many of the Department’s initiatives and fire safety education-related programs.

The Mayor and Fire Commissioner also urged that New Yorkers to follow these other simple fire safety tips in the home:

Develop an escape plan and review the plan with all members of the family frequently. Be aware that children and elderly people may need special assistance should a fire occur. Establish a meeting place outside the house for all members of the family to ensure that everyone gets out safely. When a fire occurs, get out of the house and use a neighbor’s telephone to notify the fire department.

Space heaters need space. Portable space heaters need a three-foot (one meter) clearance from anything that can burn and should always be turned off when leaving the room or going to sleep.

Never overload electrical outlets. Never run electrical extension cords under rugs. Replace old or damaged cords.

For information about how to keep your home fire safe, visit our fire safety information page.